Prestwich Model 4 [1898]

Designed by John Alfred Prestwich [1874-1952] and manufactured by the Prestwich Manufacturing Company in London, England, in ca. 1898. The camera had 400ft external magazines.
The first cameras had the magazines on the outside of the camera, but Prestwich and all the other camera manufacturers, except for Pathé, soon decided that for reasons of light leaking on the film it was best to enclose the magazines inside the camera body.
When there are no second takes, reliability of the camera is of the utmost importance. This is the reason Frank Hurley, the Australian photographer and cinematographer of the Shackleton Antarctic Expedition, chose a Prestwich as his cine camera. In October 1914, Hurley sailed on the wooden ship Endurance from Buenos Aires for Antarctica. He had to abandon his camera when the ice crushed the ship on November 21, 1915.

John Alfred Prestwich (1874 – 1952) was an English engineer.

Famous as much for his creation of cinematography projectors as his J. A. P. engines. He worked with S.Z. de Ferranti and later the cinema pioneer William Friese-Greene. He founded the company JA Prestwich Industries Ltd in 1895. He was awarded the Edward Longstreth Medal in 1919.